


Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

by boxparade



Series: Until The Night Is Dawn [8]
Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe within an Alternate Universe, Dancing, Death, Kid Fic, M/M, Parenthood, Superhusbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 11:41:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539049
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boxparade/pseuds/boxparade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Do not go gentle into that good night.</i><br/>Rage, rage against the dying of the light.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slow Dancing In A Burning Room

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so freaking sorry about this.
> 
> A/N: THIS IS SET IN THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE. The ones the kids are from. Sorry, I really should've clarified that the rest of the stories in the LitE series don't really follow any order, just are little things I wrote that don't fit into the main story but still happened. LitE is still in progress.

They’re trapped. There’s no two ways about it. Steve pulls off his cowl and runs a nervous hand through his hair, drawing in a deep breath.

“If I can manage to consolidate the residual power in the repulsors, then I can—”

“Tony,” Steve says.

“Not now, JARVIS, I’m working.” His fingers scatter frantically along the wreck of his suit, hovering with such a gentleness that Steve thinks it’s a wonder anyone could call Tony heartless.

“Tony, please.”

It’s a testament to their years together that Tony responds the second time around. Anyone else, and he might never stop. But maybe that would be for the best. Maybe if he just kept looking, fell into his work and never realized—

Tony looks up to meet Steve’s eyes, and all it takes is one look before his face falls.

“Maybe if we—”

Steve shakes his head. His fingers loosen around the cowl, ripped and singed to shreds, until it falls from his hand and drops to the ground without a sound.

His hand, instead, reaches out for Tony.

“But the others—”

Silence falls, heavy and thick with grief. They’re gone already. Clint, Natasha, Thor; the indestructible Bruce. Not even JARVIS made it out. They’re all that’s left, and they’re rapidly racing toward the same end.

Explosions rock the ground around them, and 50,000 tons of steel and concrete rattle above their heads. They see each other in the hazy glow of fire, illuminating the dust and smoke as it soaks into their skin. Tony’s lips are dry when they finally meet Steve’s.

“The kids,” Tony croaks out, falling toward him, and Steve shuts his eyes and stops breathing for a moment while his chest caves in. For all they know, Avengers Tower is gone. Wiped off the grid with the rest of New York. And more than the pain of all he’s lost—his home town, his team, his past life, Peggy—what hurts the most is the fear of never knowing what happened to Peter and Kennedy. Never knowing if they passed quick, if they held out long enough to say goodbye, if, by some miracle, they lasted this long…

His one regret is failing to give them a world of their own. Failing to protect their home, protect them, when it mattered most. Maybe Tony was right. Maybe they should’ve stayed, held the tower, the rest of the world be damned. They’re his _family_. They matter.

But Peter never would’ve forgiven them, and besides, he doubts they would’ve fared much better. The world is set on ending.

Their feet start moving of their own accord, and there’s no rhythm to it, no reason or rhyme besides the desperate last moments of two men with everything left to lose and nothing left to give.

As they twirl in slow circles, pressed close, the flames flicker around them like candles, leading them gently into that good night.


End file.
